


Something Different

by WrathoftheStag (Mwuahna)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Magical Realism, Supernatural Elements, but we don't know they are there, magic!bitty, we live with other beings, zimbits - Freeform, zimbits au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 15:05:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14046879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mwuahna/pseuds/WrathoftheStag
Summary: Jack sees Eric at Bean Bros. coffee shop almost every day.  Will he gather the courage to have an actual conversation?  The magical spirit that lives with Jack sure as hell hopes he does.





	Something Different

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Legowerewolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legowerewolf/gifts).



> This is for Legowerewolf (who was nice enough to create an AO3 skin for me.) They submitted the following prompt: 
> 
> "How about something like Jack stumbling across the magical stuff that co-exists with us in secret and is about to be 'dealt with' but Bitty steps in. Now, Bitty is a mage with not a whole lot of power but he does have a staff. He defends Jack with his magically-augmented staff fighting and is about to go on his way but... Jack does something? Offers to take him out for coffee? In short, Magic!Bitty stepping in to defend Mundane!Jack from the things in the dark."
> 
> Well, I've never written anything magical before and I changed the prompt a teeny bit but I hope you like it. :)

10,000 Earth years ago, the Gemelo people lived in relative harmony on a plane adjacent to Earth’s realm. The days were long, the nights were short and time stretched slowly. They existed unnoticed by the other worlds around them and were content in their lives as the Gemelo were a magical people. Their magic could manipulate space and objects, and they used this skill to cultivate their land, build their homes, and create a society. They shared their magic and wisdom with one another... until the day came when they did not. Greed, sloth, wrath, pride, envy, lust, gluttony consumed them and soon the gods of the Gemelo were broken-hearted and decided they had had enough.

Rather than destroy their world, the Gemelo were expelled by their gods from their planet and sent to Earth where they were sentenced to live. Each Gemelo was assigned one human to look after, to observe and learn from, in secret, shielding their form from human eyes. When that human died, they were assigned another person, and so on, until their gods felt certain that that Gemelo had reached a higher plane of divinity. 

Most of the Gemelo took to their tasks with great eagerness, ready to learn from their past and hopefully one day, earn the forgiveness of their gods. While the humans were primitive people, they were earnest and loved wholeheartedly—so, in their own small way, they offered some lessons to the Gemelo. 

The Gemelos grew to genuinely care for their humans. They celebrated their tiny victories, cried alongside them when sadness overcame their lives, and they mourned when their humans moved on to the Summerlands. 

Once in a great while, a Gemelo would have a human who carried a bit of magic within. Some carried it more than others. And those humans would on occasion communicate with their Gemelo—or even other Gemelos. These very special humans, while feared by some Gemelos, were generally lauded.

And then, of course, there were some Gemelos that… well, were not so enamored of their wards. If they were stuck with someone with an ugly heart or a hubris-filled human, there was nothing to do but wait for their last day to come. 

Still, for most of the Gemelo there was nothing worse than being stuck with a predictable person. For how could you spend 70 - 90 years being downright bored?

 **+++**

Alarm. Run. Protein smoothie. Shower. Breakfast at the stadium. Practice. Lunch at the stadium. Game. Dinner. Shower. Sleep. Alarm. Run. Protein smoothie. Shower. Breakfast at the stadium. Practice. Lunch at the stadium. Game. Dinner. Shower. Sleep. 

The alarm goes off and Jack Zimmermann jumps out of bed. He does a couple stretches and jogs into the bathroom to brush his teeth. 15 brushes in the front, 15 brushes on the left, 15 brushes on the right, tongue five times, rinse and spit. Jack pees then jogs back to the bedroom to pull on his running gear. He slaps on his baseball cap and smiles at his reflection in the mirror by his front door. 

“Be better,” Jack says to himself, and off he goes. 

Jack Zimmermann’s day is a steady constant. If there’s one thing he likes, one thing he can appreciate, it is the comfort of routine.

Acyuta, however, could really use a break. Like, really… just one big break, please.

“Here comes the coffee shop, maybe you could stop for—I do not know—say, a baked confectionary, perhaps?” Acyuta mumbles as he matches his stride to Jack’s and sighs a long-suffering sigh. 

“And there goes the coffee shop. Omecthys forbid you stop for coffee _before_ you finish your run.”

Jack makes it to the park one minute faster than yesterday and throws his fist up in a tiny private celly which causes Acyuta to roll his one large eyebrow.

“You are certainly living the life, are you not, Jacques?” Acyuta says unamused.

After his run, Jack stops at Bean Bros. for his usual morning treat: one medium coffee with a splash of almond milk and half a packet of stevia.

There are two registers open and Jack promptly goes to the line with the sunny Southern blond barista named Eric, even though it is the longer line. Jack knows his name is Eric because of his name tag, not because he has ever dared to ask. Never ever... not even once. 

Acyuta stands next to Jack and side-eyes him the entire time. 

“What about a latte for once? Maybe one of those horrific whipped cream concoctions?” Acyuta asks fruitlessly. “No? No. Fine.” 

He folds his arms and nods at another Gemelo who returns the gesture and is sitting at one of the tables enjoying a comic book with his human.

“And just how exactly is this much hockey knowledge going to help me achieve my ultimate enlightenment? Just how?” Acyuta complains to no one in particular, as they both take another step closer to the register.

“Morning. What can I get you today—the usual?” Eric asks Jack with much enthusiasm.

Jack immediately looks down, “Uh, yeah. Please.”

“Sure thing,” Eric answers and gets a cup.

Acyuta, frustrated more than usual, shouts at Jack, “Do something, you dullard!”

“Hmm? What was that, honey? You say something?” Eric asks as he finishes pouring coffee into the to-go cup.

Acyuta pauses and watches Eric carefully. Had he heard him?

Jack looks up at Eric and shrugs, “No? No, I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, sorry! Thought I heard something. Here you go. That’ll be $2.50, honey,” Eric says as he hands over the coffee with a brilliant smile. 

Jack blushes and plops three dollars onto the counter then quickly shuffles off before getting his change.

“See you tomorrow,” Eric calls out.

Jack sighs as he adds his almond milk. “He called me honey. Twice,” he mumbles to himself. “And I didn’t even say bye. _Crisse_.”

Acyuta rubs at his face exaggeratedly, and yells again, “Then for the love of all that is holy, say something next time!”

“Hey, you forgot your change,” Eric said appearing suddenly next to Jack.

Startled Jack looks up to see Eric’s smiling face.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Thanks,” Jack says and smiles feebly at Eric.

Acyuta shouts again, (because he is in a rather shouty mood this morning because after 26 years of Jack’s timidity and uncertainty in most things non-hockey related, there is only so much more he can take) “He is right in front of you. Say something now, you godsforsaken idiot!”

Eric’s brow knits, as he examines the space surrounding Jack. Acyuta pauses and takes note. Could it be?

“It’s okay,” he says slowly with an eyebrow arched. “Huh…” 

Jack looks up and for a moment their eyes meet, and Eric’s expression softens instantly. 

“I refilled the almond milk just before you got here, so it’s nice and fresh,” Eric says with a wink then walks back to his register. “See you tomorrow,” he calls out without turning back.

“See you,” Jack says softly with a dopey smile. Acyuta stands there, momentarily stunned that perhaps there is more to this barista than meets the eye.

 **+++**

Jack has the day off, a very welcomed thing, and he thinks he might go to the park next to Bean Bros. and try out his new Leica lens. (The park’s flowers are blooming nicely. Maybe that little corgi he sees now and then might be there. The corgi’s legs always make Jack laugh.) 

Of course, if Jack is being honest with himself, he knows the park is just a rouse for being near Bean Bros. And being near Bean Bros. means...

Jack still remembers the first time he saw Eric. It was after a morning run on a day that seemed like any other, and Jack figured he should support the neighborhood economy and visit the coffee shop that just opened. 

He entered and there at the register Jack saw the sweetest face he’d ever seen.

“Morning!” the man said happily. “What can I get you?”

Jack stumbled over his words as his eyes swept across the lovely visage before him.

“Medium coffee, black?”

“Are you sure about that?” Eric asked. (His name tag read Eric, with a smiley face as the tittle on the letter i.)

“Am I sure?” Jack asked as he furrowed his brow. “Yes?”

“Well, you should treat yourself a bit and at least add a splash of milk or something.” Eric looked him up and down slowly and said with a smile, “Though it’s clear you watch what you eat, so there’s some almond milk and stevia over there, too.”

“Euh, thanks,” he said as he blushed and quickly handed over a couple crumpled bills.

And since then, their conversations had been mostly about coffee—if you could call them conversations. Sometimes they talked about the weather.

It was clear that Eric had no idea who Jack was, and Jack found that amazingly refreshing. And so along with his splash of almond milk and half a packet of stevia, Eric became Jack’s other special treat. A quick hello, a small glance, an ill-attempted dad joke that still yielded a laugh from Eric, that would be plenty for Jack for now, even though he’d love more.

And so, seeing Eric smile at him again the other morning makes him think that maybe today will be the day he goes to Bean Bros. and says something more than his coffee order or the state of the weather.

Jack pulls on his running tights, slaps on a pair of Samwell shorts over them, shimmies into a sweatshirt and slips on his yellow Adidas trainers. He pulls on a beanie, his camera strap across his shoulder (the camera thuds against his chest gently) and heads out. 

“Okay, Zimmermann. You got this!” he says to himself in the hallway mirror before he leaves.

**+++**

Acyuta walks alongside Jack, petulant and exasperated, as Jack takes a couple photos of shadows of tree branches dancing on the sidewalk. Acyuta has to admit, he does admire Jack’s artistic side. It seems like the only other place, apart from the arena of ice, where Jack allows himself some sort of spontaneity. 

As Jack sits on a park bench and throws bits of his PBJ to the pigeons (he made it at home and had slipped it into his pocket), he looks across the street toward Bean Bros. 

“Jacques, this is the day you will talk to the coffee merchant. This has to be the day. While I think you are a nice person, you need more. _I_ need more. The last truly spontaneously glorious thing you did was defecating in your father’s sports chalice. And that was over two decades ago.”

Jack smiled as he looked at two pigeons pecking at the same piece of crust.

“Good gods, please do not let pigeon watching be the highlight of our day, Jacques. I cannot bear it any longer. So help me!” Acyuta shouts angrily wishing he could shove Jack.

He has heard tales of certain Gemelos who, fed up with their humans, actually committed bodily harm against them. The thought horrifies Acyuta, but then again… his human could use a good shove in the right direction. Couldn’t he? Anything to reach his higher plane. 

Acyuta channels his inner light into one small pinpoint, focusing and concentrating until all of his force is in the tip of his finger. He quickly pushes it against Jack’s arm.

“Ow!” Jack called out as he rubs his forearm. “What the hell was that?”

Acyuta stills, feeling guilt and exuberance all at once. 

Jack frowns and rises from the bench. He tosses the last bit of the sandwich toward the kit of pigeons and begins to traverse the park. Acyuta giddily runs alongside him. His day has taken an unexpected turn.

Jack enters the coffee shop and it’s quite empty for a Friday afternoon. Eric is at the register, singing along to a song that is being piped into the coffee shop speakers, and one small dark-haired woman is wiping down the tables. 

Eric stops singing once he notices Jack.

“Well, what a surprise!” Eric says with a bright smile, “What can I get you today?”

Jack fidgets for a second as he looks at the chalkboard menu over Eric’s head and says, “An iced Americano?”

Eric’s eyebrows shoot up, “My, my, my! Something different.”

Jack blushes. “I… I figure today I should do all sorts of something different.”

“Good for you, honey. One iced Americano, coming right up.”

Acyuta gets close to Jack and can practically see the wheels turning in Jack’s head. “I was wondering… that is…”

Eric paused his work. “Yes?”

“Do you, uh… I mean.”

Acyuta and Eric leaned in. “Yes?”

“Can I get extra ice?” Jack blurts out awkwardly.

“YOU FOOL!” Acyuta shouts and against his better judgment begins to channel his energies toward Jack once again.

In that instant, Eric jumps over the counter and pulls out a small branch of a willow tree, waves it three times and shouts, “Thrice around the circle’s bound, sink all evil to the ground! As I will it, so mote it be!”

A blinding flash of light encompasses Jack as he falls to the ground, and for an instant Acyuta is seen by them both as he is tossed back and flies across the coffee shop stopping when he crashes into a wall causing a hanging picture to fall.

The woman wiping the table pauses and looks toward where Acyuta is currently sprawled in a daze. She shakes her head, rolls her eyes and walks back toward the kitchen.

“What the hell was that?” Jack asks as he sits up and stares at Eric wide-eyed.

“Sweet Mary, good lord,” Eric said as he let out a whoosh of air. “What a freaking asshole...”

Jack turned toward the space where Acyuta landed, unable to see anyone or anything there, then turns back to look at Eric.

“But… what was that?” Jack stutters.

Eric extends his hand to Jack and helps him up. “Sometimes, they just overstep and have to be reminded of their place.”

Jack looks completely poleaxed as Eric brushes Jack off gingerly, and then places his wand back inside his pocket. Acyuta stands shakily and stumbles over toward them.

“Now you listen here, mister,” Eric says sternly in Acyuta’s direction, “I’ve already cast a full-blown protection spell on this one here, so you best do right by him or else. My moomaw didn’t raise no fool. Don’t think for one second I don’t know how to handle y’all!”

Jack looks around the coffee shop, simultaneously confused and swoony over Eric who seemingly rushed to his defense. 

Eric then looks at Jack and smiles softly. “I’m sure you have a ton of questions, don’t you, honey?”

Jack thinks for a second, taking everything in, then smiles and says to Eric, “How about I pick you up later, and you can explain it to me over dinner?”

Eric’s face blooms into an enormous grin as he nods and says, “Yeah. That sounds really nice. I’d like that very much.”

“My name’s Jack, by the way.”

“Eric. Nice to officially meet you. Now, how about I get you your Americano and my phone number.”

The two head back toward the counter and Acyuta follows behind them and smiles thinking that perhaps there is more to this hockey player than meets the eye.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Devereauxs_Disease](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devereauxs_Disease/pseuds/Devereauxs_Disease) for taking a look at this. <3 You're the best!
> 
> Come and flail with [me over on Tumblr](http://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com).
> 
> All _Check, Please!_ characters belong to Ngozi.


End file.
